Abstract: An arbitration system and method provides self-arbitration among a plurality of processors or other entities vying for access to the bus or other shared resource. The entities vying for access to the shared resource present their respective priority values to an evaluation medium. The evaluation medium determines the highest priority value of those values presented, and provides this “winning” value to the competing entities. The entities compare the received “winning” value to their respective presented values. If an entity makes a positive comparison, that entity won the arbitration and is granted access to the shared resource.

Abstract: A shared memory system (10) is provided which interfaces with a shared memory bus (14). The shared memory bus (14) interfaces with a plurality of peripherals (12) through memory interfaces (16). Each of the memory interfaces (16) is operable to receive addresses from the associated one of the peripheral units (12) and communicate with the shared memory system (10) to process the addresses and subsequent data transfers in an ordered manner. The shared memory system (10) has associated therewith an arbitration logic circuit (78) that is operable to service bus requests from each of the memory interfaces (16). When a bus request is received, the requesting one of the memory interfaces (16) is allowed to access a single byte of data, after which it relinquishes the bus to another one of the memory interfaces (16).